*October 20, 2016
9:00 am -11am
First Amendment Lounge from
The National Press Club
529 14th Street NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045
Patent Assertion Entities—firms that specialize in enforcing patent rights, by negotiating licenses or, if necessary, suing alleged infringed—have been central to recent debates about patent reform, with differing views about whether these firms perform a valuable economic function or impose excessive litigation costs. In an effort to help answer these questions, the Federal Trade Commission in 2014 initiated a Section 6(b) study of PAEs and their impact on innovation and competition. A principal purpose of this study is to go beyond the currently available public record of PAE litigation activity and attempt to gather non-public data related to acquisition and licensing practices, and structural issues related to organization and economic relationships. The study is expected to be released shortly.
Please join TPI for a discussion of the report with academic experts on patent issues. Opening remarks will be given by Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen of the Federal Trade Commission. Panelist currently confirmed for the event are:
Deepak Hegde, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Stern School of Business, New York University
Suzanne Munck, Deputy Director and Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property, Federal Trade Commission
Fritz Scheuren, Senior Fellow and Vice President, Center for Excellence in Survey Research, NORC
Thomas Lenard (moderator), Senior Fellow and President Emeritus, Technology Policy Institute
Additional speakers will be announced soon. Registration for the event can be performed online here.
*Please note, in the event that the release of the report does not occur prior to the scheduled date, this event will be postponed.
The Technology Policy Institute
The Technology Policy Institute is a non-profit research and educational organization that focuses on the economics of innovation, technological change, and related regulation in the United States and around the world. More information is available at https://techpolicyinstitute.org/.
